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Health in a changing city: Glasgow 2021

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 6th August 2021
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New report reveals widening health inequalities across Glasgow and the early impacts of COVID-19.

New research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) published today shows a worrying polarisation of trends – with many groups dealing with multiple, complex and interrelated disadvantage, both pre and since the pandemic. Those most affected are women, children and young people, minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities, and those on low pay or in precarious employment.

The report ‘Health in a Changing City: Glasgow 2021’ provides a comprehensive analysis of changes in population, socioeconomic, environmental and health factors over the last 20 years within and across the city, and in comparison, with Scotland. Although most of the analyses precede the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence of the impacts of the
pandemic is commented on. Many of the challenges the city currently faces were pre-existing prior to COVID-19 and these underlying social and health inequalities shaped and determined people’s experience of the pandemic and its impact on them.

Alongside the many reported direct and indirect negative impacts of the pandemic, this period has also brought people and communities together – through helping each other out, volunteering and demonstrations of community solidarity and engagement on specific issues. These all indicate an increase in community, political and civic engagement which the
authors highlight should be built upon when developing post-pandemic policy responses.

Although Glasgow has become less deprived in comparison to the rest of Scotland over the last 20 years, it remains the Scottish city with the highest concentration of people living in deprived circumstances and with high levels of child poverty, fuel poverty and food insecurity. Children in Glasgow are more likely to live in the most deprived areas than any other age group and more likely to experience homelessness than adults. The report also notes inequality in mental health service provision for children.

You can read the full report on Glasgow Centre for Population Health website (this link will take you away from our website)

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